Many professionals operating in the field of healthcare utilize medical devices and tools on a daily basis. These professionals often carry with them certain staple instruments throughout the day. Among the staple instruments, a particularly common instrument is the stethoscope. Unfortunately, many users find the stethoscope to be as cumbersome to carry as it is useful. The gangly device cannot be crushed or sharply folded. Carrying it in one's pocket is typically impossible or impractical. Its unbalanced weight distribution causes shifts and sliding when draped over necks, shoulders, and wall hooks. Left unsecured the dangling chest piece becomes a war mace inflicting damage on the user's body and surrounding objects. The frequent drops and collisions cause damage to the device itself which is expensive to repair or replace. Professionals working in the fast pace environment of emergency rooms, or in flight and mobile nursing, and those working as first responders know these problems all too well. Military and civilian medical teams working in the military must have secure rapid access to their instruments due to the stressful and highly physical environment they may be deployed in. First responders, emergency services personnel, and military staff may also be in uniforms that are bulky or burdened with other gear limiting quick or secure access. On the flipside, hospital and clinic staff may be in uniforms such as scrubs with poorly designed or inadequate pockets. Setting the instrument down is not an alternative as the user must always have their instruments ready for use. Yet in the course of a single shift, the user may reach for, use, and then put away an instrument many dozens of times. Anything that can reduce that burden will improve both the performance of the user and the quality of the care they can deliver.
In addition to those concerns, many users desire to carry the stethoscope or other instrument in a secured manner for reasons of hygiene. In the environments where users are working, diseases are often transmitted through contact with surface pathogens found on counters, stretchers, gurneys, chairs, tables, doorknobs, and floors. Earpieces or ear tips in particular can collect debris, bacteria, viral mater, mold, etc. from contact with foreign surfaces. Upon use, the ear tips will then make contact with the user's ear canal raising the likelihood of contamination. The chest piece may also act as a carrier cross contaminating patients and professionals. It becomes a vital part of the user's hygiene strategy to keep instruments secured and away from unnecessary contact with such foreign surfaces.
For all of those reasons and many more industrious inventors have strived for an improved method of carrying instruments such as the stethoscope.
Some inventions sought to address the problem by attaching the stethoscope to the user's clothing. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,451,725, U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,657, U.S. Pat. No. 6,065,563, U.S. Pat. No. 6,286,147, U.S. Pat. No. 6,419,133, U.S. Pat. No. 9,009,922, and US2009026237. There are some downsides to these devices that can't be overlooked. In the case of U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,657, U.S. Pat. No. 6,065,563, U.S. Pat. No. 6,419,133, and U.S. Pat. No. 9,009,922, a bulky holster is required. Holsters may not secure well to scrub pants and other unbelted outfits. Holsters are also prone to catching on furniture and other people. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,286,147, the stethoscope is secured by the user's garment itself which has specially designed features. The user is unable to secure the stethoscope unless they are wearing that special garment. In patent application US2009026237, the disclosed device required the user to first install a magnetically drawn set of plates inside and outside of the user's clothing at the location where the user intended to secure the stethoscope. Some perceived problems include: the extra bulk and weight of the magnetic plates on the user's clothing; the plates have to be strong enough to not be pulled apart when the user attempts to detach the stethoscope; the need to remove the device from each garment after each wear by the user; and the potential failure of the device on thick clothing, to name a few.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,289,051 sought to secure the stethoscope as part of a utility belt. This may be an ideal situation for certain heroes of the medical profession, however many professionals don't need to carry a large array of instruments. The ideal invention would be light, efficient, easy to use, hard to lose, and effectively secure the stethoscope regardless of the user's attire. Patent application US20110010895 sought to meet this need by using a modified “s” hook configured foam tube clip. That application was rejected in light of expired patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,406,042 which was for “s” hook tube clips. The problem with pulling the stethoscope in and out of such a clip is that it is likely to cause wear and tear on the tubing over time. The use of foam construction may have been meant to address this problem, but created new ones. The resiliency of foam degrades over repeated use, thereby likely leading to failure or weakening of the grip on the tubing and consequently unintended releases of the tubing. It would be quite dangerous to have the stethoscope drop into a patient during surgery, or swing into a child's face during an examination. A user perceiving there was a risk for such an unintended release would hesitate to continue using such a product.
Another concern shared by medical professionals and medical facilities is the misplacement and displacement of instruments such as stethoscopes. If a user spends good money to get a high performance instrument, they will seek to protect it from being lost or taken by mistake. Likewise, medical facilities may have instruments that they own and maintain. These facilities may desire a means to readily identify their property.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,701,648 disclosed a locking stethoscope identification tag. This consisted of essentially two plates that would adjustably lock upon being pressed together over a section of the binaural spring and sound conductor fork. The outward facing plate provided a location for placing identification information. While that prior art accomplishes the goal of providing a surface for labeling and identifying, it does nothing to add to the securing of the stethoscope while the user is carrying it.